Do we still get value from national examinations?

Newspapers are awash with paid advertisements for schools displaying their top scores—aggregate four (4) and five (5) in the recently released Primary Leaving Examinations (PLE) results.

Many schools have run dubious radio and television advertisements boasting about their learners’ high scores. Some parents have fallen prey to this. They are moving from one media house to another, paying for space to have their children’s photographs and success stories published!

They have placed their children under immense pressure to score the highest aggregates. Pupils who have not scored an aggregate of 4 or 5 feel dejected and worthless. And this does not consider the circumstances under which the candidates wrote the examinations.

Some were sick; others have examination fright! It is even worse for O and A levels. At A-level, the teachers, in concert with parents, advise students to take certain subject combinations that, in their view, are passable. In the end, students have been trained to memorise facts that, in most cases, are not relevant to their future career choices.

And in some cases, creativity and innovation have been killed at the altar of passing examinations. Those who memorise well are greatly rewarded with good aggregates. There are specific teachers who happen to be members of the panel that sets national examinations. These teachers have turned into mercenaries.

They are sought after by private schools. They are famed for training pupils or students to earn the perfect examination score. These teachers compile a list of set examination questions and coach learners on how to correctly answer them. So, learners memorize the answers to questions.

And this training takes almost a year to accomplish. Education has taken on an unusual personality. And this is a consequence of the wholesome embrace of private education. Education is no longer a public good, as it was when most schools were public schools.

It is now a competitive business, and certainly the maladies that come with cutthroat competition are inevitable. In some cases, Uneb has had to withhold the results of some schools suspected of having hired people to assist candidates during exams.

In others, learners were found with written chits that appeared like answers to examinations. Why are schools doing all this? It is because they now regard learners as clients (sources of income) rather than individuals who must be educated.

This uncouth competition has affected the integrity of examination results, and the entire education system is flawed. From the above, national examinations may not be the right criterion to test the intellectual abilities of pupils or students. The ministry of education ought to regulate competition and the sector.

This model of education is ruining children. Now, children’s intellectual abilities are measured by how well and how much information they can memorize. Parents have been duped. Children need to compete, but it needs to be done fairly and properly.